A forgotten Fourth [Wednesday, July 4]
After an early run around the city, I went to HU and prepared various financial documents requested by the London office for the audit of the Sierra Leone branch....not exactly the most riveting work, but I guess such audits are necessary in large organizations to ensure accountability and a corruption-free project.
I'm amazed by the number of people who know my name - I'll walk down one of the streets and inevitably someone calls out "Paul!" and comes over to greet me like an old friend - while I'm absolutely clueless as to their identity.
I returned to the iEARN and went to lunch with Jyoti at Marianella. The students finally returned the cameras I had lent them last Friday to take pictures of their family. Although I had stressed to them the importance of bringing the cameras back by Monday at 12pm so I could redistribute them to the next group of students, the rain on Monday and Tuesday effectively kept the students - and my cameras - at home. Thankfully, the sun was out in full force today, so they returned the cameras and I was able to teach again (for the first time since Friday). Two of my six cameras for the kids "disappeared" last week, so I can now only teach four at a time, and, when combined with students keeping camera for extra-long periods of time, my progress through the lesson plans has been severely constrained.
The self portraits weren't working out so well, so I skipped ahead to the family assignment, for which the students write for about twenty minutes about their families, their history, and their hopes for the future. Ideally, they then make a list of pictures they would like to take to convey those feelings, but usually that's overly optimistic, as they have found it very challenging to convert words into images. Once a few more students complete the family assignment, I will print out a few images from each student and we will write captions for them, describing both what is inside - and outside - the frame.
After class I hung around the center and talked to some of the students - or rather tri to understand their Krio. They taught me a game in which the leader shouts out a letter and you have to come up with a word starting with that letter ASAP. In theory it's quite easy, but when you have try to wade through Krio accents - and they though my American (as they're used to an archaic British) english accent - it complicates matters a bit.
I returned to the YMCA and went out on Fort Street to take some pictures. I met the guys who run the shoe & clothing store just down the street from the Y. They are two brothers - one 24, the other 20.
They have relatives in Maryland who ship them containers - via Maersk SeaLand - to Freetown where they sell their relatively upscale merchandise. The owner just returned from working for a US military subcontractor in Baghdad - he was very glad to be back in Freetown, although he still wants to come to America. He's on the left in the picture below:
On a good day - when it's not raining - they can make anywhere from $5 - $25. They also introduced me to Sebastian, a Liberian refugee who lives above their store - he can't be more than 16 years old. He's the one leaning out of the door on the right of the above picture.
Before long I was mobbed by the usual Fort Street children
There is no concept of of boys or girls clothing. The boy with the batteries in his mouth (I have no idea what he was doing with them) was wearing a "purrrr-fect!" shirt with a kitty cat on it. One twenty something young man I saw yesterday had a "#1 Mom" shirt on; Harry (Amanda's Sierra Leonean project coordinator) is very proud of his woman's purse:
Last week he purchased a black woman's coat for Le 6000. When I told him the buttons were on the wrong side and that it was incredibly feminine, he didn't seem to mind. I realized that clothing is clothing, and when the only actual reference to gender is a few small words on the tag, it doesn't really matter who some designer in New York intended it to be for. A coat is a coat and a purse is a purse - here in Salone function is as important, if not more so, than mere aesthetics.
Eddie, the executive director of Miracle Corners of the World, is in town for a few days, so Amanda and Nick took him up to the US Embassy to meet with the ambassador, leaving me to celebrate the Fourth of July with Jyoti, Tamara (two of the other iEARN interns), Rachel and Michelle (British grad students doing research). I didn't even realize it was the Fourth of July until I was writing down my expenses for the day and wotre 7/4. As the sole American at dinner, I had a bit of a subdued celebration with Jyoti (Nepal), Tamara (Australia), Rachel (UK) and Michelle (UK).
I'm amazed by the number of people who know my name - I'll walk down one of the streets and inevitably someone calls out "Paul!" and comes over to greet me like an old friend - while I'm absolutely clueless as to their identity.
I returned to the iEARN and went to lunch with Jyoti at Marianella. The students finally returned the cameras I had lent them last Friday to take pictures of their family. Although I had stressed to them the importance of bringing the cameras back by Monday at 12pm so I could redistribute them to the next group of students, the rain on Monday and Tuesday effectively kept the students - and my cameras - at home. Thankfully, the sun was out in full force today, so they returned the cameras and I was able to teach again (for the first time since Friday). Two of my six cameras for the kids "disappeared" last week, so I can now only teach four at a time, and, when combined with students keeping camera for extra-long periods of time, my progress through the lesson plans has been severely constrained.
The self portraits weren't working out so well, so I skipped ahead to the family assignment, for which the students write for about twenty minutes about their families, their history, and their hopes for the future. Ideally, they then make a list of pictures they would like to take to convey those feelings, but usually that's overly optimistic, as they have found it very challenging to convert words into images. Once a few more students complete the family assignment, I will print out a few images from each student and we will write captions for them, describing both what is inside - and outside - the frame.
After class I hung around the center and talked to some of the students - or rather tri to understand their Krio. They taught me a game in which the leader shouts out a letter and you have to come up with a word starting with that letter ASAP. In theory it's quite easy, but when you have try to wade through Krio accents - and they though my American (as they're used to an archaic British) english accent - it complicates matters a bit.
I returned to the YMCA and went out on Fort Street to take some pictures. I met the guys who run the shoe & clothing store just down the street from the Y. They are two brothers - one 24, the other 20.
They have relatives in Maryland who ship them containers - via Maersk SeaLand - to Freetown where they sell their relatively upscale merchandise. The owner just returned from working for a US military subcontractor in Baghdad - he was very glad to be back in Freetown, although he still wants to come to America. He's on the left in the picture below:
On a good day - when it's not raining - they can make anywhere from $5 - $25. They also introduced me to Sebastian, a Liberian refugee who lives above their store - he can't be more than 16 years old. He's the one leaning out of the door on the right of the above picture.
Before long I was mobbed by the usual Fort Street children
There is no concept of of boys or girls clothing. The boy with the batteries in his mouth (I have no idea what he was doing with them) was wearing a "purrrr-fect!" shirt with a kitty cat on it. One twenty something young man I saw yesterday had a "#1 Mom" shirt on; Harry (Amanda's Sierra Leonean project coordinator) is very proud of his woman's purse:
Last week he purchased a black woman's coat for Le 6000. When I told him the buttons were on the wrong side and that it was incredibly feminine, he didn't seem to mind. I realized that clothing is clothing, and when the only actual reference to gender is a few small words on the tag, it doesn't really matter who some designer in New York intended it to be for. A coat is a coat and a purse is a purse - here in Salone function is as important, if not more so, than mere aesthetics.
Eddie, the executive director of Miracle Corners of the World, is in town for a few days, so Amanda and Nick took him up to the US Embassy to meet with the ambassador, leaving me to celebrate the Fourth of July with Jyoti, Tamara (two of the other iEARN interns), Rachel and Michelle (British grad students doing research). I didn't even realize it was the Fourth of July until I was writing down my expenses for the day and wotre 7/4. As the sole American at dinner, I had a bit of a subdued celebration with Jyoti (Nepal), Tamara (Australia), Rachel (UK) and Michelle (UK).
posted by Paul at
4:27 PM
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